Bordeaux Trip: Day Three

Our final day in Bordeaux...

First thing in the morning we went to visit a coutellerie, a knife shop where knives are made, sold, and sharpened. Before the owner showed us how to properly sharpen a knife, he pointed out the above photo on the wall. It is of a young boy and most likely his father, both of whom worked as knife sharpeners. In the old days, they had to lie on their stomachs to sharpen the knives and below them was a stream of water that they used while working. The conditions were quite cold so (as you can see in the middle right of the photo) they had dogs accompany them to keep them warm. I guess back then the dog was both man's best friend and man's blanket. :)

The Monsieur then began readying his knife sharpening machine.

And away he went, sharpening the knife with bare hands. 

Impressive and scary at the same time.

Next, he moved on to a buffing machine.  Again, he went right at it with bare hands.

See the sparks flying off this thing.  Keep in mind, these wheels are moving.  Someone has to be either seriously skilled or slightly off in the head to attempt this in my opinion. 

Next, he continued to sharpen the knife on a whetstone.

And finished by polishing it on yet another machine.

Here he is showing us the final sharpened product.

Well, almost.  Before being officially finished, he honed the knife with a fusil.  When he was finally done, all I could think is, "I wish that were my knife."  It was deadly sharp and perfect for my upcoming stage. Oh well, you can't have everything you wish for.

After the coutellerie visit, we headed to lunch.  If you have read Bordeaux Trip: Day One and Day Two, I am sure you aren't shocked to see us heading straight for a multiple course meal at 11 am at Lion D'Or.

The waiters (who were so French) brought our first course to the table in huge soup pots and ladle some into each of our bowls.

Along with the soup we had crispy, buttery croutons.

And grated cheese.

Et voila: Garlic Soup.

When almost finished with the soup, Chef came around and poured about one shot worth of red wine into the soup.

We were then instructed to drink it like Leo is doing.  I quickly followed suit.

Second course: charcuterie - pates with beef aspic.

The side dishes for the third course were a delicious pot of white beans

and mouth watering homemade potato chips.

Third course: Lamb.  Yum.

The fourth course was cheese.  It was so delectable that I ate the other piece that was on the plate before taking a picture and then ate anyone else's that didn't want theirs.  It was a sheep's milk cheese called Ossau-Iraty that I will forever covet.

The fifth course: pain perdu (french toast essentially) with a canelle and a fruit compote.

Our chefs with the chef from Lion D'Or.  He is supposedly notorious for his quirkiness.

Just take note at how many bottles of wine are on the table - and that's just half the table!

So that is the story of Ferrandi's trip to Bordeaux.  It was fun, filling and an absolute blast.  Many thanks to the Chef for organizing it and keeping us fueled with good food and great wine!